This invention is related to an artist easel. Conventional artist's easels are supported by three legs in the form of a tripod. The easel's legs are moveable between a folded storage position in which the legs are parallel to one another, and a supported position in which the upper ends of the legs are connected at a common location. Some prior art easels may be found, for example, on U.S. Pat. No. 4,326,687 issued Apr. 27, 1982 to C. Wayne Clybum for “Plural Leg Stand”; U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,116 issued Oct. 16, 1979 to George E. Carver, et al. for “Adjustable and Collapsible Easel”; U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,613 issued to Jun. 30, 1992 to Percy F. Albee, Jr., et al. for “Easel”; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,609,174 issued Sep. 2, 1986 to Koma Nakatani for “Foldable Easel” and U.S. Pat. No. 6,601,805 issued Aug. 5, 2003 to Dennis Kapp. These easels are all characterized by having the upper ends of the legs pivotally connected at a location closely adjacent one to the other.
Some four-legged easels are known in the art, however, they usually comprise two pairs of legs having their upper ends joined on opposite sides of a display board or the like. An example may be found in Design Pat. 346,287 issued Apr. 26, 1994 to Lawrence Rosen for “Convertible Easel”.
The broad purpose of the present invention is to provide a four-legged easel in which the upper ends of four legs converge toward a common pivot structure. A slideable spine is frictionally mounted on the pivot structure so that it can be raised or lowered to a height accommodating the artist's needs. The two front legs are mounted so that they swing in a common plane between their supporting and their storage positions. The two rear legs pivot in planes that form an acute angle with the plane of motion of the two front legs.
The pivot structure has abutments that limit the spread of the four legs. This arrangement obviates the need for braces connected between the legs to prevent their collapsing.
Still further objects and advantages of the invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains upon reference to the following detailed description.